1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with an improved mobile fixture specifically designed to facilitate the loading of leaves or other yard refuse into large holding bags. More particularly, it is concerned with such a fixture including strategically located wheels permitting the fixture to be readily moved in an upright or diagonal orientation, and alternately placed in substantially full ground contact with the wheels being rendered inoperative, so as to facilitate filling of the supported bag. In addition, the fixture preferably includes a sectionalized, bag-supporting hoop which can be selectively adjusted so as to vary the hoop size; in this fashion, the hoop can be adjusted so as to frictionally engage and secure a bag in place.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Any homeowner confronted with the task of raking and collecting large amounts of leaves, grass clippings or other garden and yard wastes is familiar with the problem of efficiently loading such materials into large plastic bags. This is particularly the case where the homeowner must work alone, without the aid of someone to hold the bag for filling purposes. Various expedients have been proposed in the past for alleviating these difficulties. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,982 describes a generally U-shaped paper board insert adapted to be placed within a plastic bag to hold the bag in an opened condition. This approach is deficient in that once filled, the bag insert must be removed, inevitably leading to some spillage of the bag contents. Moreover, this type of bag insert provides no assistance in transporting a filled bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,468 represents another attempted solution. This patent describes a wheeled cart designed to hold a bag in an opened, upright position for filling purposes. However, this requires that the refuse be manually lifted from the ground and dropped into the open bag; again, spillage and loading inefficiencies are the inevitable result. The cart described in the '468 patent is not designed for placement on the ground in a horizontal position for filling purposes, inasmuch as the wheels thereof remain in operative ground contact when the cart is horizontal. As a consequence, an attempt to load the cart in this position leads to inadvertent movement of the cart across the ground. In addition, this prior art cart is equipped with an upper, rearwardly extending handle. Thus, if the cart is laid horizontal, the handle in effect elevates the bag opening off the ground, again requiring that the refuse be lifted into the bag opening.